http://jasonlisashannonjones.blogspot.com/2011/07/faith-through-shannons-eyes.html
Some pictures from the 4th! I know, it's a little late....
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Love this.
Love this post from our dear friend, Lisa, about her amazing 2nd grader, Shannon. Oh to have the faith and purity of a child.
http://jasonlisashannonjones.blogspot.com/2011/07/faith-through-shannons-eyes.html
Some pictures from the 4th! I know, it's a little late....
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Making smores with Daddy, note Morganne shielding her face from the heat. She said that she didn't like camp fires, or smores :cP
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Posing for a pic with one of their favorite people, Miss Amanda.
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So rotten- both of them!
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Loving Aunt B!
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http://jasonlisashannonjones.blogspot.com/2011/07/faith-through-shannons-eyes.html
Some pictures from the 4th! I know, it's a little late....
Saturday, July 9, 2011
A lesson in selfishness (again) and big changes
About 2-3 times a year I go through a mental slump where I stress about the position our family is in financially. I've blogged on here about it before and we've had tremendous encouraging support from our friends and family. So much so that I've often been humbled (again and again) by the words and monetary encouragement. I truly don't blog to get responses, especially monetarily, it's more a way of sharing my thoughts and reflecting on my current perspective. I love friend's and family's input, and it's often these words that get me to snap our of my selfish slump and realize the blessings that God has indeed bestowed upon us. We are truly blessed. I know I say that a lot, but we are allowed to brag about God and that is what I'm doing when I say that we are blessed.
A couple weeks ago an opportunity arose. I believe this world functions majorly based on who you know in life. God puts people in your path to help open doors and I believe it's our place to either use those new entrances, help other's use them, or let them pass by. Well, a good friend of ours told us of a possible job availability at the local Bobcat company. Our friend is close with the owner of the company and really put in a good word for Justin. We contacted Bobcat and an interview was scheduled. The interview went great and Justin and I were super excited. Finally, a chance to get out of Home Depot, a chance for a pay raise, and something to look forward to. I have not seen Justin so excited about something in many years. He is miserable at Home Depot, but the pay is decent and the schedule allows him to maintain and develop his growing lawn care business- which he loves. Over the past two years he has realized that his school path is not truly where he wants to be and isn't necessarily what God is calling him to do. Even though he would be a great teacher someday, it's just not for him right now. So, Justin has been battling the frustrating questions of "OK God, now what? What am I supposed to do with my life?". It's been weighing on Justin a lot and I will admit that I'm not a good support for him when I stress about money and unintentionally put what he feels as "blame" on his shoulders. I am a very focused and forward thinking person. School has always been preached to me and that is what I did so I thought this was the answer. Problem is, if you don't know what direction you are going to go, school can be a big waste of time and money.
So, Bobcat called us back and offered a job- yeah! But wait, here's the rub, they were way below what we needed financially or so we thought. With different hours, Justin will lose a lot of his lawn care business, which is huge extra income for us. He will also not be off every other Friday to watch the girls which saves on daycare costs in the winter. It's also not a step forward- which is truly where I thought this job (or his next job) would take us financially. I was crushed, because here I had to be the "bad guy" and point out (while crying) that we just can't do it. I thought there is no way, because we are already extremely tight and our goals of paying off debt is going painstakingly slow. If Justin lost income, that would be a step in the wrong direction- right??? So, he very painfully, turned down this job the Saturday before the 4th. This job was basically made for him by the way. The Bobcat guys were only offering a part time gig, but after meeting Justin, they wanted him full time and tailored the job to everything that Justin has experience in and has loved about his last 3 places of employment. He was SUPER excited about it. This is when I ask God "WHY!?!?!?" All weekend, I prayed and prayed, "please let Bobcat call back and raise their offering price!". Well, they didn't. However Justin and I talked and we had a great talk. I'm pretty sure that God wanted us to talk and this whole job opportunity thing was brought about if for nothing else than to open the doors of communication for us. Justin told me something I needed to here. He told me that school is not for him, at least not right now. That is something that I need to accept and appreciate. Justin is not me and I can't expect him to have the same way of thinking as I do. We also crunched numbers and discussed our future a bit. I realized that I was being very selfish thinking that Justin had to stay at HD in order to be better financially for our family- for me. His happiness is worth more to me than money and it's not like he is taking a huge pay cut, he's just not advancing like I thought he would with his next job. So, after our talk on Tuesday, he called Bobcat and told them that if the job was still available he would like to take it. Ironically, the manager had already promised to two other interviews so he couldn't give him the job yet. He would let Justin know by Friday. Huh, so now what. Basically we knew that if he didn't get the job now, this is now what God had intended for us. But again, this whole situation was a good thing- at least for me. Wednesday, Justin got a call from the Bobcat manager. Apparently, the interview Wednesday morning was a flop and they didn't want to wait for the second interview because they wanted Justin for the job. So, as of July 25th Justin will be employed at Bobcat of Indy North! This position offers room for advancement within the company and Justin can totally see himself managing one of these locations someday. Maybe that's what God has in store.... Either way, we know that God will provide and we appreciate the opportunity to rely on him in faith. We are truly blessed.
Also, other big happenings for us lately, Justin just got a new (well new to us) truck. I will post pics too. It's big, it's red, and it it fits our family. We needed something bigger to accommodate our family size (it's been over 6 months since I've ridden in his old truck due to not being comfortable from a car seat behind the passenger side) and also would allow for his lawn care business to continue. He's scaling back due to the new job hours, but he still plans to maintain a few with the possibility of growing his business if opportunity arises. I fretted about the new loan on this truck, but we feel it's a necessity and it's doable.
Kaelynn is now walking- finally. She is following Morganne's milestones almost to exactly, being within 3 weeks of age of where Morganne accomplished these changes.
We had a great fourth of July with family and friends. The girls both loved the parade and fireworks. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures of that day soon.
Anyhow, this was an extremely long blog post. Thanks for sticking it out and allowing me to share my thoughts. I hope you know that God is good He will take care of all of His children.
A couple weeks ago an opportunity arose. I believe this world functions majorly based on who you know in life. God puts people in your path to help open doors and I believe it's our place to either use those new entrances, help other's use them, or let them pass by. Well, a good friend of ours told us of a possible job availability at the local Bobcat company. Our friend is close with the owner of the company and really put in a good word for Justin. We contacted Bobcat and an interview was scheduled. The interview went great and Justin and I were super excited. Finally, a chance to get out of Home Depot, a chance for a pay raise, and something to look forward to. I have not seen Justin so excited about something in many years. He is miserable at Home Depot, but the pay is decent and the schedule allows him to maintain and develop his growing lawn care business- which he loves. Over the past two years he has realized that his school path is not truly where he wants to be and isn't necessarily what God is calling him to do. Even though he would be a great teacher someday, it's just not for him right now. So, Justin has been battling the frustrating questions of "OK God, now what? What am I supposed to do with my life?". It's been weighing on Justin a lot and I will admit that I'm not a good support for him when I stress about money and unintentionally put what he feels as "blame" on his shoulders. I am a very focused and forward thinking person. School has always been preached to me and that is what I did so I thought this was the answer. Problem is, if you don't know what direction you are going to go, school can be a big waste of time and money.
So, Bobcat called us back and offered a job- yeah! But wait, here's the rub, they were way below what we needed financially or so we thought. With different hours, Justin will lose a lot of his lawn care business, which is huge extra income for us. He will also not be off every other Friday to watch the girls which saves on daycare costs in the winter. It's also not a step forward- which is truly where I thought this job (or his next job) would take us financially. I was crushed, because here I had to be the "bad guy" and point out (while crying) that we just can't do it. I thought there is no way, because we are already extremely tight and our goals of paying off debt is going painstakingly slow. If Justin lost income, that would be a step in the wrong direction- right??? So, he very painfully, turned down this job the Saturday before the 4th. This job was basically made for him by the way. The Bobcat guys were only offering a part time gig, but after meeting Justin, they wanted him full time and tailored the job to everything that Justin has experience in and has loved about his last 3 places of employment. He was SUPER excited about it. This is when I ask God "WHY!?!?!?" All weekend, I prayed and prayed, "please let Bobcat call back and raise their offering price!". Well, they didn't. However Justin and I talked and we had a great talk. I'm pretty sure that God wanted us to talk and this whole job opportunity thing was brought about if for nothing else than to open the doors of communication for us. Justin told me something I needed to here. He told me that school is not for him, at least not right now. That is something that I need to accept and appreciate. Justin is not me and I can't expect him to have the same way of thinking as I do. We also crunched numbers and discussed our future a bit. I realized that I was being very selfish thinking that Justin had to stay at HD in order to be better financially for our family- for me. His happiness is worth more to me than money and it's not like he is taking a huge pay cut, he's just not advancing like I thought he would with his next job. So, after our talk on Tuesday, he called Bobcat and told them that if the job was still available he would like to take it. Ironically, the manager had already promised to two other interviews so he couldn't give him the job yet. He would let Justin know by Friday. Huh, so now what. Basically we knew that if he didn't get the job now, this is now what God had intended for us. But again, this whole situation was a good thing- at least for me. Wednesday, Justin got a call from the Bobcat manager. Apparently, the interview Wednesday morning was a flop and they didn't want to wait for the second interview because they wanted Justin for the job. So, as of July 25th Justin will be employed at Bobcat of Indy North! This position offers room for advancement within the company and Justin can totally see himself managing one of these locations someday. Maybe that's what God has in store.... Either way, we know that God will provide and we appreciate the opportunity to rely on him in faith. We are truly blessed.
Also, other big happenings for us lately, Justin just got a new (well new to us) truck. I will post pics too. It's big, it's red, and it it fits our family. We needed something bigger to accommodate our family size (it's been over 6 months since I've ridden in his old truck due to not being comfortable from a car seat behind the passenger side) and also would allow for his lawn care business to continue. He's scaling back due to the new job hours, but he still plans to maintain a few with the possibility of growing his business if opportunity arises. I fretted about the new loan on this truck, but we feel it's a necessity and it's doable.
Kaelynn is now walking- finally. She is following Morganne's milestones almost to exactly, being within 3 weeks of age of where Morganne accomplished these changes.
We had a great fourth of July with family and friends. The girls both loved the parade and fireworks. Maybe I'll get around to posting pictures of that day soon.
Anyhow, this was an extremely long blog post. Thanks for sticking it out and allowing me to share my thoughts. I hope you know that God is good He will take care of all of His children.
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